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"A biography of Edgar Allan Poe with an emphasis on his engagement with the scientists and scientific discoveries of his era"-- Provided by publisher.

Tresch reveals Poe's obsession with science and lifelong ambition to advance and question human knowledge. Even as he composed dazzling works of fiction, he remained an avid and often combative commentator on new discoveries, publishing and hustling in literary scenes that also hosted the era's most prominent scientists, semi-scientists, and pseudo-intellectual rogues. In showing that Poe lived, thought, and suffered surrounded by science, Tresch shows that many of his most renowned and imaginative works can best be understood in its company. -- adapted from jacket

Part I: From Allan to Poe

The Young Astronomer

In Jefferson's Experiment

Exile, Artificer, Cadet

Part II: Setting Sail

A Baltimore Apprenticeship

Richmond: The Palpable Obscure

Delirious Design

Part III: Philadelphia

The Athens of America

Methods Grotesque and Arabesque

Dizzy Heights

The Tide Turns

The March of Science and Quacks

Part IV: New York City

The Market for Novelty

A Man of Wonders

The Imp of the Perverse

Part V: To the Plutonian Shore

A Spectacle for Angels

The Plots of God

Falling Star

Conclusion: From a Lighthouse.

Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849 > Knowledge and learning.

Science > United States > History > 19th century.

Authors, American > 19th century > Biography.